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Personality and Individual Differences 131 (2018) 105–110

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Personality and Individual Differences


journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid

Longitudinal associations between narcissism, mental toughness and school T


achievement

Kostas A. Papageorgioua,b, , Margherita Malanchinic,d, Andrew Denovanf, Peter J. Cloughe,
Nicholas Shakeshaftc, Kerry Schofieldc, Yulia Kovasb,g
a
School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast, UK
b
Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia
c
Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King's College London, UK
d
Psychology Department, University of Texas at Austin, United States
e
Department of Psychology, Huddersfield University, UK
f
Faculty of Health, Psychology and Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
g
Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths University of London, UK

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Mental toughness has been associated with optimal performance across diverse contexts including academic
Longitudinal design achievement. MT is positively associated with subclinical narcissism. Cross-sectional research reported that high
Mental Toughness narcissism may contribute indirectly to enhanced positive outcomes, through MT. This study is the first to
Subclinical narcissism explore longitudinally the development of the association between MT, narcissism and achievement in a sample
School achievement
of adolescents. MT correlated positively with narcissism and predicted a small percentage of the variation in
school achievement. Narcissism did not correlate significantly with school achievement. However, subclinical
narcissism exerted a significant positive indirect effect on school achievement through MT. The findings suggest
that the relationship between narcissism and MT could be one of the non-cognitive mechanisms that underlie
individual variation in school achievement.

1. Introduction growth (St Clair-Thompson et al., 2015). MT correlates with personality


traits that are established predictors of performance in diverse settings
There is increasing interest in studying the role of non-cognitive (Lin, Mutz, Clough, & Papageorgiou, 2017). For example, a study re-
traits in contributing to variation in academic attainment across de- ported positive correlations between MT, extraversion, openness to
velopment (e.g. Dumfart & Neubauer, 2016). Several non-cognitive experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness; and negative corre-
traits have been identified as buffers against the negative impact of lations between MT and neuroticism (Horsburgh, Schermer, Veselka, &
stressful situations on performance in education. These include grit Vernon, 2009). Another study showed evidence for the existence of a
(Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007); motivation (Lepper, general factor of personality representing high levels of MT, extraver-
Corpus, & Iyengar, 2005); resilience (McGeown, St Clair-Thompson, & sion, and conscientiousness as well as low levels of neuroticism
Clough, 2016); and hardiness (Kobasa, 1979). Mental toughness (MT) (Veselka, Schermer, Petrides, & Vernon, 2009).
has been suggested as a construct that may subsume the aforemen- Clough et al. (2002) characterised MT as a composite of four (the
tioned concepts (see Sadeghi Bahmani et al., 2016). 4Cs) strongly correlated but independent subcomponents: (1) control
(life and emotion): the tendency to feel and act as if one is influential
1.1. Mental toughness, learning and educational achievement and keep anxieties in check; (2) commitment: the tendency to be deeply
involved in pursuing goals despite difficulties that arise; (3) challenge:
MT is a personality trait that includes an array of positive char- the tendency to see potential threats as opportunities for self-develop-
acteristics such as perceiving challenge as an opportunity rather than a ment and to continue to strive in changing environments; and (4)
threat and feeling in control of life situations (Clough, Earle, & Sewell, confidence (in abilities and interpersonal): the belief that one is a truly
2002). MT reflects an effective coping mechanism in reaction to stres- worthwhile person in spite of setbacks, and the ability to push oneself
sors and it facilitates proactively seeking out opportunities for personal forward in social settings.


Corresponding author at: School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast, David Keir Building, 18-30 Malone Road, Belfast BT9 5BN, UK.
E-mail address: K.Papageorgiou@qub.ac.uk (K.A. Papageorgiou).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.04.024
Received 29 October 2017; Received in revised form 13 April 2018; Accepted 16 April 2018
0191-8869/ Crown Copyright © 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
K.A. Papageorgiou et al. Personality and Individual Differences 131 (2018) 105–110

Previous research has shown that MT is an important concept for suggesting that narcissism increases MT, which subsequently con-
explaining individual differences in learning and educational perfor- tributes to higher school achievement. We hypothesised that:
mance (McGeown et al., 2016). For example, positive correlations were
found between total MT, academic attainment (r = 0.22), attendance 1. MT will correlate positively with subclinical narcissism in adoles-
(r = 0.22; St Clair-Thompson et al., 2015), social inclusion (r = 0.22) cence.
and social acceptance (r = 0.38) in adolescents (St Clair-Thompson 2. MT and subclinical narcissism will correlate positively with school
et al., 2015). Another study showed that MT was correlated negatively achievement.
with oppositional behaviour (r = −0.23), inattention (r = −0.17) and 3. MT, narcissism and achievement will associate to each other long-
hyperactivity (r = −0.14) in adolescents (St Clair-Thompson et al., itudinally and will show high stability over time.
2015). 4. Narcissism will exert a positive indirect effect on school achieve-
Individual differences in MT also associate with individual variation ment through MT.
in undergraduate students' performance in learning and education. For
example, a study reported positive correlations between MT, grades and 2. Method
progression (r = 0.31and r = 0.25, respectively; Crust et al., 2014) in
undergraduate students. Another study reported that the 4Cs were 2.1. Sample
positively associated with self-esteem (r = 0.23 for the subscale of
control of emotions to 0.83 for the subscale of confidence) and college Participants are part of the Multi-Cohort Investigation into Learning
adjustment (r = 0.19 to 0.70); and negatively associated with school and Educational Success (MILES). Wave 1 and wave 2 ((N = 927 and
concerns (r = −0.27 to −0.52) in undergraduate students (St Clair- N = 561, respectively after data cleaning and screening) include stu-
Thompson et al., 2015). The particularly high correlation between self- dents recruited from three different Italian high schools in the Milan
esteem and confidence (reported in St Clair-Thompson et al., 2015) is to Province. The present investigation includes students who participated
be expected and it has been acknowledged by a number of authors and in MILES at both wave 1 (March 2016) and wave 2 (June 2016). In total
approaches (e.g. Cashmore, 2002; Crust, 2008). However, MT re- 339 students took part in both collection waves (54% females).
presents a number of additional (to self-esteem) psychological con- Participants' ages ranged between 14 and 21 (M = 15.63, SE = 1.40, in
structs including Seeking out challenge; Motivation to achieve; Persistence wave 1 and M = 15.83, SE = 1.40, in wave 2). Students with a diag-
and Resilience (Clough et al., 2002). nosis of learning difficulties were excluded from the current analyses.
Recently a study explored the association between MT and aca- MILES received ethical approval from the ethics committee of the
demic grades and attendance in a sample of university students. Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths University of London and the
Commitment and control together accounted for 16.5% of the variance parents' and teachers' committees of every school that approved the
in total average grade (Lin, Clough et al, 2017). These studies suggest MILES protocol.
that MT is an important trait in relation to educational outcomes with
implications for educational practice. 2.2. Procedure

1.2. Narcissism and mental toughness All students were invited to take part in the study. The data were
collected online using the forepsyte.com online platform (www.
Subclinical narcissism includes facets retained from the clinical forepsyte.com). Students took part in both testing sessions at home or
syndrome, namely grandiosity, entitlement, dominance, and superiority on the school's computers after classes. Participants were given an in-
(Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Previous studies suggested that narcissism dividualised ID, which they used to access the web study. The ID codes
might be unique among the DT traits in that, it encapsulates to a larger and corresponding names are stored in a separate secure server from
extent (in comparison to psychopathy and Machiavellianism), prosocial the rest of the data. An information sheet, consent form and debrief
and adaptive behaviours (e.g. Veselka, Schermer, & Vernon, 2012). form were included at both collection waves. The first wave lasted
Petrides, Vernon, Schermer, and Veselka (2011) used a sample of twins around 90 min; the second wave around 45 min.
and reported that—unlike psychopathy and Machiavellia-
nism—narcissism correlates positively (r = 0.20 for twin 1 and r = 0.22 2.3. Measures
for twin 2) with emotional intelligence. The authors suggested that the
heightened sense of self-worth may render a narcissist optimistic, mo- 2.3.1. Mental toughness
tivated, assertive, and successful in relationships (Petrides et al., 2011). The newly developed ten-item Mental Toughness Questionnaire
Three studies have explored the relationship between subclinical (MTQ-10) has been used to assess total MT at wave 1 and wave 2.
narcissism and MT in adults (Onley, Veselka, Schermer, & Vernon, Originally, a 12-item measure derived by taking the two highest line
2013; Papageorgiou, Wong, & Clough, 2017; Sabouri et al., 2016). All adding items of the MTQ48 in each of the six sub scales. We then
three studies reported significant and positive associations between the performed a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on the 12-item mea-
two traits (r = 0.13–0.21 between the 4Cs and narcissism; r = 0.50 for sure and resulted in the 10-item version due to poor factor loading for
total MT and narcissism; r = 0.21 for total MT and narcissism, respec- two of the 12 items. The initial CFA on the resultant 12 items from EFA
tively). Furthermore, Papageorgiou et al. (2017) showed that, despite provided unsatisfactory data-model fit on all indices but SRMR, χ2 (54,
being part of the dark triad, narcissism exerted a significant negative N = 343) = 185.87, p < .001, CFI = 0.82, IFI = 0.82, SRMR = 0.07,
indirect effect on both psychopathy and Machiavellianism through MT. RMSEA = 0.09 (CI of 0.08 to 0.11). An inspection of factor loadings
This statistical model suggests that subclinical narcissism could increase revealed that item 7 and item 11 loaded poorly on the general factor
MT contributing indirectly to positive outcomes. (0.27 and 0.22 respectively), and below the recommended threshold of
0.32 (see Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001). Removal of these items resulted
1.3. The current study in an improved model fit. The statistical analysis that was conducted to
validate this new measure is described in detail in the Supplementary
The current study aimed to: (1) Extend previous findings, derived Material.
from adult samples, on the association between subclinical narcissism The MTQ-10 has an average completion time of 5 min with re-
and MT in an adolescent sample; (2) Explore longitudinally the degree sponses to its 10 items given on a 5-point Likert scale anchored at
to which individual differences in MT and subclinical narcissism predict 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. Three items are reverse
individual variation in school achievement; (3) Test a mediation model coded; the MT score represents the average score of the 10 items.

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K.A. Papageorgiou et al. Personality and Individual Differences 131 (2018) 105–110

Example item include “I generally cope well with any problems that occur”. ability) was used to explore the associations between MT and narcis-
sism at wave 1 and wave 2 with school achievement (wave 1 and wave
2.3.2. Narcissism 2, respectively). Longitudinal associations between MT (wave 1) with
The Short Dark Triad questionnaire (SD3) assesses subclinical nar- grades in mathematics (wave 2), literacy (wave 2) and second language
cissism, subclinical psychopathy and Machiavellianism and it has high (wave 2); and between narcissism (wave 1) with grades in mathematics
reliability and validity, including construct validity and external va- (wave 2), literacy (wave 2) and second language (wave 2) are presented
lidity (Jones & Paulhus, 2014). The SD3 includes 27 items, 9 for each in the supplementary material in Tables S2 and S3, respectively.
scale with responses given on a 5-point Likert scale, with 1 = strongly MT at wave 1 was associated significantly with school achievement
disagree and 5 = strongly agree. We used only the 9 items that assess at wave 1 (β = 0.10, R2 = 0.01, p < .05). MT at wave 2 was associated
subclinical narcissism. Example items include: “People see me as a nat- significantly with school achievement at wave 2 (β = 0.13, R2 = 0.016,
ural leader”. The score for the subscale represents the average score of p < .05). MT at wave 1 was associated significantly with school
the 9 corresponding items. achievement at wave 2 (β = 0.11, R2 = 0.012, p < .05). When all
covariates were excluded from the model, the predictive value of MT at
2.3.3. School grades wave 1 on school achievement at wave 2 increased (β = 0.16,
Students reported their grades in mathematics, literacy (Italian) and R2 = 0.026, p < .01). When cognitive ability only was excluded from
second language at the end of the first term (wave 1) and the second the model, the predictive value of MT at wave 1 on school achievement
term (wave 2). Students' grades ranged from 4 to 10, where 10 in- at wave 2 increased significantly (β = 0.19, R2 = 0.032, p < .01).
dicated the highest possible grade, 6 represented pass, and 4 indicated a Narcissism at wave 1 was not associated significantly with school
grade of 4 or lower. A mean composite score of the grades reported in achievement at wave 1 (β = −0.02, R2 = 0.00, p = .67). Narcissism at
mathematics, literacy and second language was created as a measure of wave 2 was not associated significantly with school achievement at
overall school achievement. Self-reported grades are regarded as a re- wave 2 (β = 0.009, R2 = 0.00, p = .85). Narcissism at wave 1 was not
liable measure of school achievement (Kuncel, Crede, & Thomas, 2005). associated significantly with school achievement at wave 2
(β = −0.03, R2 = 0.001, p = .55). Table 2 presents longitudinal asso-
2.3.4. Cognitive ability measures ciations between MT and narcissism at Wave 1 with school achievement
Students' cognitive ability was used as a covariate in the analyses. A at wave 2.
30-item online version of the Raven's Progressive Matrices test (Raven,
Court, & Raven, 1996) was administered to assess non-verbal reasoning. 3.2. Cross-lagged analysis
The items were arranged in increasing level of difficulty. A discontinue
rule was applied so that after three consecutively incorrect responses in Fig. 1 presents a cross-lagged model exploring the longitudinal re-
one subsection, participants were re-directed to the next subsection. lations between narcissism, MT and school achievement across the two
The newly developed Italian Vocabulary Test (IVT-80; Malanchini, collection waves. All variables were age regressed and standardized
Malanchini, Shakeshaft, & Schofield, in preparation) was used to assess prior to model fitting. The model was a good fit for the data
verbal ability. The test consisted of 80 items and it is loosely based on (CFI = 1.00, TLI = 1.00, RMSEA = 0.000, SRMR = 0.00). MT was
the Mill Hill vocabulary test (Raven, Raven, & Court, 1998). For every found to be stable over time (β = 0.727, p < .001), and strong stability
item, participants were presented with a word, and they were asked to was also observed for school achievement (β = 0.822, p < .001) and
select a synonym of that word, out of six options. Only one option was narcissism (β = 0.685, p < .001). The concurrent relation between MT
the correct one. The items were presented in order of frequency in the and narcissism at wave 1 was moderate (r = 0.424, p < .001). The two
written Italian language, from words appearing more frequently, to variables also shared a modest correlation at wave 2 beyond their
words with appearing less frequently. For example, the word “Motive” correlation at wave 1 (r = 0.232, p < .001). The correlation between
was presented together with six possible synonyms: (a) leader, (b) ac- MT and achievement at wave 1 was weak but significant (r = 0.147,
tivity, (c) change, (d) motion, and (e) reason – with option ‘e’ being the p < .001), and the two constructs shared a weak correlation at wave 2
correct answer. A short version of the IVT including 35 items (IVT-35) (r = 0.138, p < .01). Narcissism and achievement were not correlated
was included at wave 2. The IVT showed good test-retest correlation at wave 1, but they shared a weak association at wave 2 (r = 0.135,
over 4 months (r = 0.66, N = 339). The test and the reduced version p < .01).
both showed reasonable external validity as they shared moderate
correlations with literacy school achievement (r = 0.36, N = 922 at 3.3. Mediation effect of mental toughness on narcissism and school
wave 1; and r = 0.40, N = 522 at wave 2) and non-verbal reasoning achievement
(r = 0.42, N = 922). A mean composite score of the two tests was taken
as an index of cognitive ability. The absence of a direct association between narcissism and
achievement does not preclude the possibility that they are indirectly
3. Results associated though their mutual relation with MT. Fig. 2 illustrates our
proposed mediation model: In line with the hypothesis, the indirect
3.1. Descriptive statistics and associations between mental toughness, effect of narcissism (wave 1) on school achievement (wave 2), through
narcissism and school achievement individual differences in MT (wave 2), was positive and statistically
significant (b = 0.08, SE = 0.03, 95% CI [0.032, 0.162]).
Descriptive statistics for MT, subclinical narcissism, school grades
and school achievement are presented in Table S1 in the Supplementary 4. Discussion
material. Table 1 presents test-retest reliabilities for MT, subclinical
narcissism, school grades and school achievement; and correlations The present study explored longitudinally the contribution of MT
between school grades for wave 1 and wave 2, respectively. and subclinical narcissism in educational achievement. The results ex-
Partial correlations (controlling for age and sex) showed that sub- tended previous cross-sectional findings in adult samples (e.g.
clinical narcissism (wave 1) correlated positively with MT at wave 1 Papageorgiou et al., 2017) showing a positive and moderate association
(r = 0.38, p < .001, 95% CI [0.28, 0.47]). Subclinical narcissism between MT and subclinical narcissism, across both collection waves, in
(wave 2) correlated positively with MT at wave 2 (r = 0.34, p < .001, an adolescent sample. This finding provides further support to previous
95% CI [0.23, 0.45]). evidence (see for example, Onley et al., 2013) indicating that narcissism
Multiple linear regression (controlling for age, sex and cognitive encapsulates prosocial and adaptive behaviours.

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K.A. Papageorgiou et al. Personality and Individual Differences 131 (2018) 105–110

Table 1
Test-retest reliabilities for mental toughness, narcissism, school grades and school achievement and correlations between school grades at wave 1 and wave 2.
Variable name MT 1 SN 1 Maths 1 Lit 1 SL 1 SA 1 MT 2 SN 2 Maths 2 Lit 2 SL 2 SA 2

MT 1 – – – – – – 0.74***+ – – – – –
SN 1 – – – – – – – 0.69***+ – – – –
Maths 1 – – – 0.47*** 0.45*** – – – 0.73***+ 0.41*** 0.42*** –
Lit 1 – – – – 0.56*** – – – 0.46*** 0.73***+ 0.54*** –
SL 1 – – – – – – – – 0.39*** 0.56*** 0.78***+ –
SA 1 – – – – – – – – – – – 0.83***+
MT 2 – – – – – – – – – – – –
SN 2 – – – – – – – – – – – –
Maths 2 – – – – – – – – – 0.48*** 0.44*** –
Lit 2 – – – – – – – – – – 0.64*** –
SL 2 – – – – – – – – – – – –
SA 2 – – – – – – – – – – – –

Note: N = 339; ***p ≤ 0.001; + after a correlation denotes test-retest reliabilities with all other co-efficient representing correlations between school grades at wave
1 and wave 2; MT 1 and MT 2 = Mental Toughness at Wave 1 and 2, respectively; SN 1 and SN 2 = Subclinical Narcissism at Wave 1 and 2, respectively; Maths 1 and
Maths 2 = Mathematics at Wave 1 and 2, respectively; Lit 1 and Lit 2 = Literacy at Wave 1 and 2, respectively; SL 1 and SL 2 = Second Language at Wave 1 and 2,
respectively; SA 1 and SA 2 = School Achievement at Wave 1 and 2, respectively.

Table 2 ranges from 4 to 10 where 4 represents any score from 0 to 4). Future
Longitudinal associations between mental toughness (wave 1) and narcissism studies could assess longitudinally total MT and the 4Cs and employ
(wave 1) with school achievement (wave 2). additional measures of school achievement in order to test the pre-
N = 339 dictive power of MT on school performance.
Cross-lagged analyses showed that MT, narcissism and achievement
Dependent B β t 95% CI 95% CI R2 p-Value were all highly stable over time, which is indicative of the reliability of
variable for β for β
these constructs. The correlations between measures were significant
lower upper
bound bound beyond those observed at wave 1; this finding may suggest that the
observed associations grow over time. The cross-lagged links between
Independent variable: mental toughness wave 1 all constructs were not significant. This suggests that, even if the as-
School 0.20 0.11 2.20 0.02 0.38 0.012 0.02 sociations between MT, narcissism and achievement grow over time;
achieve-
ment wave
this growth is not a function of their direct mutual influences on each
2 other. Oher factors, for example conscientiousness and openness to
Independent variable: narcissism wave 1
experience may influence the longitudinal association between MT and
School −0.53 −0.03 −0.58 −0.22 0.12 0.001 0.55 narcissism.
achieve- Mediation analysis showed that subclinical narcissism was posi-
ment wave tively associated with MT, which in turn was associated with higher
2
school achievement. This is in line with recent findings (see
Note: The “B” and “β” refer to the unstandardized and standardized regression
Papageorgiou et al., 2017) suggesting that subclinical narcissism may
coefficients respectively. increase MT, a trait that is relevant across achievement contexts, con-
tributing indirectly to positive outcomes. Future studies could explore
The results also showed that MT associates positively with school the role of MT and narcissism in other aspects of life, such as for ex-
achievement. Additional analysis on the association between MT and ample relationships, career aspirations and professional satisfaction.
school grades showed that MT associates more strongly with school The findings of the present research should be interpreted in light of
grades in literacy than in mathematics and foreign language. This some limitations. Responses in self-reported data may be influenced by
finding requires further investigation as it suggests that MT may be common-method variance (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff,
more relevant to certain aspects of academic attainment (such as in 2003) and social desirability, particularly in the context of the assess-
literacy) as compared to others (such as in mathematics). However, the ment of a “dark” trait (narcissism). Data collection from multiple raters
variance in school achievement and grades that was explained by MT could enhance the validity of the results. Moreover, scores for narcis-
was very small, which poses difficulties in terms of making inferences sism obtained using the SD3 might be biased towards assessing nar-
about the practical value of these results. It is possible that non-cog- cissism as a prosocial trait, linked to healthy self-esteem, rather than
nitive traits, such as MT, may be stronger predictors of academic per- assessing the antisocial aspects of narcissism. Maples, Lamkin, and
formance in higher education in comparison to lower levels of educa- Miller (2014) suggested that the SD3 narcissism scale measures pri-
tion. This could be due to the fact that university samples tend to marily the grandiose aspects of this construct; while other short mea-
exhibit less individual variation in intellectual ability as a result of sures of this trait, such as the Dirty Dozen (Jonason & Webster, 2010)
students being selected on the basis of similar academic performance in might capture both vulnerable and grandiose features of narcissism.
high school (Furnham, Chamorro-Premuzic, & McDougall, 2003). Finally, the generalizability of the findings might be limited to the
We do think however that MT has an important role to play in educational system of the country from which the sample has derived;
school achievement. A possible explanation for the difference between future studies could attempt to replicate the results using cross-cultural
the current findings and previous research is differences in the mea- data.
sures that were used in this study and in previous studies. Specifically, McGeown et al. (2016) have proposed recently that future research
the MTQ-10 may not capture the full amount of individual variation on focusing on MT should make efforts to overcome some of the metho-
MT offering lower explanatory power in relation to performance out- dological weaknesses (e.g. lack of longitudinal data) to allow a greater
come. More importantly, however, we think that the scale of self-re- and more comprehensive understanding of this concept within educa-
ported school grades is not sensitive enough to capture the full amount tion. The current study presents novel findings on the stability of in-
of variation that exists in the lower end of the distribution (the scale dividual differences in MT and subclinical narcissism over the course of

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K.A. Papageorgiou et al. Personality and Individual Differences 131 (2018) 105–110

Fig. 1. Heat map presenting correlations between measures before and after residualizing for age and sex.
Note. Narc = narcissism; MTQ = mental toughness; Ach = achievement; V = verbal ability; NV = non-verbal ability; 1 = wave 1; 2 = wave 2.

Fig. 2. Mediation model of narcissism (wave 1) on school achievement (wave 2) through MT (wave 2).
Mediation model of the indirect effect of narcissism (wave 1) on school achievement (wave 2) through MT. b's represent the unstandardised regression coefficients
(***p < 0.001; *p < 0.05). Total effect: b = −0.052, SE = 0.089, p = 0.55; (a) The effect of narcissism (wave 1) on MT (wave 2); (b) the effect of MT on school
achievement (wave 2) after controlling for narcissism; (c′) the direct effect of narcissism (wave 1) on school achievement (wave 2).

a school year. The findings do not provide strong evidence for excluding manuscript.
subclinical narcissism from the dark triad of personality traits. How-
ever, the notion that scoring high on subclinical narcissism may in- Author contributions
crease school performance, through MT, supports the idea of studying
the contextual adaptive and maladaptive aspects of traits; instead of K.A.P. has written the manuscript with the contribution of M.M. and
focusing on rigid dichotomies between prosocial versus socially mal- A.D.; K.A.P., M.M. and A.D. have performed the statistical analyses;
evolent personality traits. M.M., N.S. and K.S. were responsible for data collection and data pre-
paration; P.J.C. and Y.K. provided critical reviews and comments
Conflict of interest during the write-up of this manuscript. K.A.P. was responsible for the
conceptualisation of the study that is presented in this manuscript;
All authors declare no conflicts of interest. M.M., N.S. and K.S are the directors of the MILES project.

Appendix A. Supplementary data


Acknowledgements
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
We gratefully acknowledge all the students and teachers of the
doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.04.024.
‘Istituto Tecnico S. Cannizzaro’, ‘Istituto Tecnico E. Mattei’, ‘Liceo
Scientifico E. Majorana’, and ‘Liceo C. Rebora’ in the city of Rho
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